Swatanter Kumar, J. - (1.) The learned Additional Sessions Judge, Arambagh convicted all the five accused persons namely, Uday Chakraborthy, Smt. Anandamoyee Chakraborthy (Appellant No. 3), Sukumar Chakraborthy (Appellant No. 2), Smt. Bela Rani Chakraborthy (Bhattacharjee) and Madhab Chakraborthy for an offence punishable under Sections 498A/304B of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter referred to as 'IPC') and sentenced them for 7 years rigorous imprisonment. No separate sentence was awarded under Section 498A of IPC on the ground that the accused persons were awarded sentence for the substantive offence of murder under Section 304B of IPC. Aggrieved from this judgment, the accused persons preferred an appeal before the High Court of Calcutta and the Bench allowed their appeal in part and order of conviction and sentence passed against Madhab Chakraborthy and Bela Rani Chakraborthy (Bhattacharjee) was set aside. However, the conviction and sentence of Uday Chakraborthy, Sukumar Chakraborthy and Smt. Anandamoyee Chakraborthy was confirmed vide its judgment dated 18th of April, 2007. Aggrieved therefrom these three appellants have filed the present appeal before this Court under Article 136 of the Constitution of India praying for setting aside the order of conviction and sentence and for an order of acquittal.
(2.) Now, we may examine the facts giving rise to the present appeal. One Ms. Mina was married to Uday Chakraborthy on 5 th of June 1994. The appellant No. 2 is the brother-in-law while appellant No. 3 is mother-in-law of deceased Mina. According to the case of the prosecution, Kanailal, the father of the girl, Mina, who was later examined as PW 1 lodged a written complaint to the Officer-in- Charge, Police Station, Arambagh, Hooghly on 19th April, 1996. The complaint reads as under: To The O.C. Arambagh Police Station, Arambagh, Hooghly. Sir, My humble submission is that, I gave my daughter Mina's marriage with Uday Chakraborty, elder son of Sri Lakshminarayan Chakraborty of village & P.O. Golta, P.S. Arambagh, District Hooghly two years before. Frequently after her marriage her father-in- law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and the brothers-in-laws used to torture my daughter both physically and mentally, because my son-in-law did not stay at the house. I went to my daughter's house for a few times. I requested her father-in-law, mother-in-law and other members of the family. I arranged for the settlement of the quarrel. After that suddenly on the last 18.4.96 (Eng) she had a feud with her husband Udaychand Chakraboty, father-in-law-Sri, Lakshminarayan Chakraborty, sister-in-law- Belarani Chakborty (Banerjee) and brother-in- law-Sukumar Chakraborty at her father-in- law's house and the aforesaid persons admitted her at Arambagh Subdivisional Hospital after burning her on the last night, and my daughter died at that night only. My firm confidence is that the household members at her in-law's place forcibly burnt my daughter to death. Therefore, I humbly pray before you to arrange for the punishment of such heinous criminals by the law and request reveals the actual reason of the death of my daughter. Yours faithfully, Sd/- Kanailal Bhattacharya xxx xxx xxx xxx The couple has not even completed a period of two years of their marriage when, on 18th April, 1996, it was alleged that because of dowry, the accused and other family members tortured Mina physically and mentally and forcibly burnt her. She was taken to hospital in emergency ward and examined by Dr. Subhsh Hazra, PW 29. At that time she was conscious and able to speak. The parents of Mina were informed on that very date. Unfortunately, Mina expired on 19.4.1996 at 5.30 AM. It was noticed on the prescription written by Dr. Subhamoy Sidhanta, PW 19, that the burn was accidental. After receiving the complaint and registering the FIR (Ex.12), K.K. Hazra, the Investigating Officer (PW-31) started inquest proceedings and her body was subjected to post-mortem, which was conducted by Dr. Mona Mukherjee (PW-18), who declared the cause of death, as death due to deep burn injury. On 11.5.1997, the investigation was transferred to another Investigating Officer when PW 31 was transferred from that police station. However, because of certain lacuna in investigation or even otherwise, it appears that on 4th of June 1997, the investigation of the case was transferred to CID and Amol Biswas (PW 30) was appointed as the new Investigating Officer. After investigating the matter and examining number of witnesses, the Investigating Officer filed the charge sheet against 6 persons namely, Uday Chakraborthy (husband), Lakshmi Narayan (father-in-law), Sukumar Chakraborthy (brother-in-law), Madhab Chakraborthy (brother-in-law), Anandmoyee Chakraborthy (mother- in-law) and Bela Rani Chakraborthy (Bhattacharjee) (sister-in-law), in the Court for an offence under Sections 304B and 498A of IPC on 31st October, 2000. The statement of accused persons under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as 'Cr.P.C.') was recorded in August 2002. During the pendency of the proceedings, accused Lakshmi Narayan had expired and, therefore, proceedings against him abated. The learned Sessions Court found all the five accused persons guilty under Sections 498A/304B of IPC and sentenced them accordingly. Aggrieved therefrom, the accused preferred an appeal in the High Court. The High Court acquitted two persons and convicted three persons, who have filed the present appeal before this Court.
(3.) The main argument addressed before this Court by the appellant is that the learned Trial Court as well as the High Court have failed to examine that the ingredients of the offence under Sections 304B and 498A of IPC were not satisfied in the present case and as such they could not be held guilty of the said offences. The complaint lodged by the father of the deceased did not contain any allegation of demand of dowry, therefore, there was no basis whatsoever to prosecute the appellants. The judgments of these courts suffer from basic infirmity of law. In the alternative, it was also contended that the entire family of the appellant has been behind the bars for a considerable time and thus, the appellants could be released on the basis of the sentence already undergone by them. We are unable to find any merit in either of the contentions raised on behalf of the appellants. According to the father of the deceased (PW-1), at the time of marriage he had given the gifts and cash amount which were reduced in writing, however, a sum of Rs. 10,000/- remained to be given subsequently. The statement of PW 1 was fully corroborated by Shyam Sunder, the younger brother of deceased (PW 2), who specifically referred to the recording of "Chuktiparta". There is no dispute raised during the trial and even now that Mina had died because of burn injuries and she caught fire at the matrimonial home. Even, during the course of hearing, there was hardly any dispute that a "Chuktiparta" was written prior to or at the time of marriage. However, according to the appellants there was no reference of the gold chain in that "Chuktiparta". It is the contention of the appellants that the prosecution witnesses have made improvement on their statements subsequently and have added the description of the gold chain. Thus, the story of the prosecution is unbelievable.;